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Hey, Man, Let’s Play Video Game Dress-Up

FIRST THINGS FIRST Tom Faulkner, 31, outfits his fighter for a wrestling match.Credit
Geoff Oliver Bugbee for The New York Times

AFTER a long shift at the television station where he works as master control operator, Tom Faulkner of Clarksville, Ind., can often be found at his Xbox 360, engaged in his favorite wrestling game, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw. It will be an hour or two, though, before Mr. Faulkner, a 31-year-old father of two, plays a match — if he decides to do so at all.

Flicking the thumb stick of his controller, he quickly bypasses the built-in roster of World Wrestling Entertainment professionals and heads straight for his favorite feature of the game, the “Create-A-Superstar” mode, where Mr. Faulkner excels as a virtual fashion designer.

Will Mr. Faulkner attire his brawler in a classic spandex unitard or a Brooks Brothers-style button-down shirt and blazer? If he opts for one of the menu’s 20 styles of tights, which of the 45 patterns will he choose? And which if any of the 346 graphical add-ons — from Gothic crosses to butterflies — will he use to adorn his wrestler’s costume? And what kinds of tops, socks, shoes, gloves, hats, jackets and jewelry should his grappler wear? Should Mr. Faulkner design a separate outfit for him to don backstage?

While men like Mr. Faulkner are more likely to be found reading Electronic Gaming Monthly than the latest issue of Men’s Vogue, customizable fashion is playing an increasingly large role in the video games they play. Female-friendly games like the Sims and online virtual worlds like Second Life are already well known for offering an almost infinite wardrobe from which users can choose their characters’ couture.

But playing dress-up in a digital world is not just for the girls. Testosterone-heavy male-targeted games now feature costuming elements, allowing young men to express themselves through clothing in a way no traditional male pastime has allowed before.

Other games make a snazzy wardrobe essential to a player’s success. In Def Jam: Icon, a hip-hop-theme fighting game, aspiring rap stars go shopping between bare-knuckle street brawls; their new outfits increase their “style points,” giving them more prestige and allowing them to earn more money.

Even Rockstar Games’ controversial Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas encourages sartorial experimentation: Money earned from illicit activities can be spent on clothes, and characters react differently to the protagonist depending upon how well he’s dressed.

And when a game is over, a well-costumed character can live forever on the Internet. At CAWs.ws, a Web site based in Manchester, England, more than 27,000 registered members come to upload pictures of their personally designed wrestlers. They also receive feedback from other members that ranges from encouraging (“Killer Khan looks pretty nice. Love the necklace”) to downright catty (“I don’t care for how the underwear covers the design on the inner thigh of the tights”).

“It’s a very artistic hobby,” said Tom Brunton, 22, an owner and administrator of the Web site, whose title acronym stands for Create-a-Wrestler. “When you’ve spent so long creating something, you want to show it to everyone you can.”

Several of Mr. Faulkner’s characters can be found on CAWs.ws, including his favorite, a wrestler named the Chupacabra. In his own day-to-day wardrobe, Mr. Faulkner never veers far from jeans and T-shirts. “I’m a very laid-back dresser,” he said. “I’m basically that fat bald guy everyone sees at the mall.” But the Chupacabra isn’t afraid to don a glossy alligator-skin vest and a mask with green dreadlocks.

Game publishers quickly realized these wardrobe features were a hit with fans. “We constantly incorporate player feedback,” said Dan Ryan, an associate game designer at THQ, the publisher of SmackDown. “Fans have wish lists of specific items, like a certain pair of sunglasses they’d like to see in the game.”

By rewarding attention to the smallest details of a character’s appearance, these games encourage players to give far more thought to clothing than they ordinarily might. “Games are the training ground where you can experiment with different looks, and then import those looks into the real world,” said Katherine Isbister, the author of “Better Game Characters by Design: A Psychological Approach” (Morgan Kaufmann, 2006). “Guys are often not sure how to make decisions regarding clothing. By making dressing part of a competition, that makes it understandable to them.”

Photo

Jacket selection for the game Def Jam: Icon.

Many real-world brands are appearing in video games. In Def Jam: Icon, a player who’s earned enough cash can outfit his character in a pair of distressed Phat Farm jeans, a baby-blue Ecko T-shirt, Air Jordan high-tops, and a yellow Puma running jacket.

“In order to authentically recreate the hip-hop world, we need the brands that real hip-hop stars wear,” said Justin Olivares, a product manager at EA Games, the publisher of Def Jam: Icon. “Companies are calling and asking to be in the game. It’s great for them — in our game, if you’re wearing the best clothes, you get bonus points.”

Sometimes the virtual mention is free and sometimes the clothing company pays for it. Other times a deal is cross-promotional, trading placement of say, jeans, for a link on the jeans maker’s Web site. It can take over a year to develop a game, so apparel companies often provide garments that have yet to hit stores.

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“It’s like looking through a catalog,” said Kudo Tsunoda, an executive producer of Def Jam: Icon. “You see some piece of clothing in the game, and you say: ‘Wow, I didn’t even know that was available. Where can I go find it?’ ”

Already clothing designers are learning how to use product placement in video games to sell real-world items. Last year, Vans designed a virtual shoe for the skating game Tony Hawk’s Project 8, available only to players who discovered a secret code. When an actual version of the shoe was a sales success, Vans created another sneaker for a sequel to the game.

“This is a whole new challenge for apparel markets,” said John Mincarelli, a fashion marketing professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. “When children start making those kind of choices in a game, it’s going to translate to their purchasing power in stores. The brands that are in the coolest video games will survive.”

Game designers say it’s only a matter of time before players are able to instantly buy the clothing they’re putting their avatars in. “I deck my character out in this outfit and — boom — I press a button and those clothes are delivered to my house,” Mr. Tsunoda said. “The technology is there to do it. We’re all just waiting to see which smart company’s going to grab the opportunity.”

For Mr. Faulkner, who stopped dressing extravagantly in the 1990s when he gave up drumming in a rock band, costuming his character is the next best creative outlet.

“I don’t know if I use character creation as a substitution for that,” Mr. Faulkner said. “But I’ll tell you one thing: If I was still in the band today, I’d be dressing up as the characters I’ve made for the games.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page 91 of the New York edition with the headline: Hey, Man, Let’s Play Video Game Dress-Up. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe